talkback question today, is it a popular one. is the nra leadership on target or out of touch? this from peter, they may be out of touch but they're fighting for rights. it's the truth. security in school, it's your kids, not his. this from anthony, the nra is spot on. none of these resolutions would have stopped these shootings. crazy people will find a way to do horrid things. this from brandy, our president loves his children and wants them protected. that's all we american parents

wanted as well. and this from carolyn, totally out of touch and not listening to the cares and concerns of american citizens. their thinking is crazy and skewed. i'm carol costello. thank you for joining me today. cnn newsroom continues with ashleigh banfield. actually one month after president obama vowed to use "whatever power his office holds to prevent more tragedies like newtown" he is about to say exactly what that means. in a little less than an hour he'll take the wraps off a series of proposals that go beyond gun control. he's expected to push for a new ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammo clips. he wants to close the so-called gun show loophole, that involving the background checks. but he's also expected to talk about other things like mental health car health care and boosting school

security. he will be joined by his vice president, joe biden who compiled these ideas after talks with various stakeholders. and for good measure they invited along some of the children who wrote them after the massacre at sandy hook. cnn's special live coverage begins at 45 minutes past the hour. while we wait for the president to address us on these issues, i wanted to bring in our white house correspondent, dan lothian. dan, is it all about the timing? is it now or never? is it capitalizing on the emotion of this country or is there something else afoot? >> no i do think it is now or never. the white house sees a sense of urgency here in pushing something forward. when you look back over the past several years, when you had these massive shootings, whether it's in connecticut, whether it's in colorado or elsewhere, there's talk in washington about coming up with guidelines to prevent something like that from happening again. then usually it gets lost in the noise of washington there are

other pressing issues that come up. in fact we probably would have been talking about fiscal issues had that shooting not happened. they see this as an opportunity to seize the moment. they believe the president is putting forward a comprehensive plan, but it's controversial. a lot of pushback, not only from gun rights groups but some lawmakers up on capitol hill. if you wouldn't mind we minding viewers. there was a lot of talk about the 19 potential executive actions the president would have at his disposal. remind us what the president can do and what congress can do instead. >> okay. let's first of all start with some things that the president wants congress to do and to act. he wants to push for an assault

weapons ban. that's something that lawmakers have been talking about shortly after the shootings and the president had expressed support for. he wants to push for a ban on those magazines with more than ten rounds, thereby slowing down a gunman. would not be able to set off as many rounds in a short period of time. he wants to push for universal background checks. that means anyone buying a weapon, whether at a gun show or private transaction would have to get checked out for mental illness or for their criminal record. wants to request funds be made available for mental health issues and for schools to be able to protect themselves. those are some things that the president will be urging congress to do. also the president does plan to do some things on his own, much of it perhaps will be focused only some laws that are already on the books, enforcing those laws. we expect the president to push for data gathering, information on weapons that have been used in crimes. those are some things that the president will push through in executive order.

>> all right. again lothian standing by for us on the north lawn of the white house, keeping an eye on the president's movements as well. we're on the countdown to seeing the president live. we should also mention to you that new york is one step ahead of the president it looks like one step ahead of the nation in this particular movement. the governor, andrew cuomo, signed into law a sweeping gun control law. it is the first such law enacted in response to the newtown shooting massacre. that law expands the state's existing assault weapons ban it also limits the size of gun magazines to seven rounds, just seven rounds. that's smaller than some of the actual capacities of guns. this law also includes measures to better keep firearms away from mentally ill people and it imposes tougher penalties on those who use guns while carrying out crimes. as to be expected, gun rights advocates denounced this law in

new york. with all the heated rhetoric over guns, it might be easy to consider throwing in the town and saying the effect of national laws to reduce gun violence are virtually impossible to achieve. but former congressman dan glickman of kansas does not agree with that. rather than denouncing gun owners, he says there is a need to understand the nation's deeply rooted gun culture. no matter how you feel about it. in an article in politico he writes we need to recognize that large numbers of americans view gun ownership as almost tantamount to their citizenship and their views have strong cultural foundations. we should not demonize the gun owner and recognize that the overwhelming majority are decent law-abiding people. dan glickman now joins us from washington. i should mention you fought for the assault weapons ban in congress and suffered dearly in your opinion for it back in '94.

you lost your seat. you feel that was the reason why. characterize for me what it was like going door to door in your campaign after having supported that kind of gun control? >> clearly that '94 campaign, i thought i was in good shape. i worked on legislation that protected thousands of jobs in the aviation industry, which saved thousands of jobs in my town, after going door to door, i could see from talking to folks on the street, in many cases their guns, gun ownership and pride of ownership was more important to them than jobs were. that's why this is so difficult. the intensity to gun opposition puts these people almost to one issue voting. most of these people have in issues they're interested in. for a congressman out there who

comes from a tough district, if they're hearing this from the standpoint of those who will say they will vote against you if you vote for this, rather than those on the other side who say there are many issues they're interested in, it is a tough political battle for them. >> let me ask you this, i'm curious about how tough a political battle it could be given that there are many who say this culture has changed so rapidly. the exponential factor brought on by newtown, but notwithstanding all the other horrific gun incidents that we have been forced to report on and the country has been forced to digest. it's a different climate in the '90s. we barely had school shootings back then. is it so tough now for a congressman or congresswoman to go out and campaign now that the polls are shifting? >> i think the polls are shifting and the environment may be better, but the intensity of this issue, how strongly do people feel about it, is still on the side of the gun owner. so, what you have to do, the

president and other also have legislation and regulations, we have to build a climate -- a political climate in this country where it's safer for politicians to support this legislation. and that is not an easy thing to do. but i think it's important to try. >> and i just want to outline some of the recent polls. they fascinated me. i don't know if i'm naive to this they seem to have significantly shifted on a number of different levels. when it comes to sat s ts t s s with gun laws, a "usa today" gallup poll suggested that 30% of those were dissatisfied and wanted stricter gun control. 43% were satisfied. 5% wanted less strict guns. when you break it down into specifics, that's what the president is doing today, the nationwide ban on semiautomatic handguns, 51% support that.

and a nationwide ban on high capacity ammunition clips, that number is even higher. it's 65% now of those asked. when it comes to assault weapons, 58% of those asked now support a nationwide ban on assault weapons. look -- when it gets to nationwide background checks, that number goes to 70%. i think those numbers are very different than when you were campaigning in '94, aren't they? >> i think the numbers are different now but i go back to the point, the intensity is what is important. how strongly do people feel when they're in their respective categories they're in. this is going to be a political battle. some things like background checks are probably going to be easier to get done than banning assault weapons. the president is showing leadership by proposing these ideas. now congress will have to deal with it. ultimately the american people will influence their congressmen. they have to let their voices be

heard and let their voices be heard in the context of how important this is for them. >> former congressman dan glickman, good of you to join us. i appreciate your perspective as it spans the decades. thank you very much. >> thank you. as mentioned, president obama is due to unveil his gun control plan a little later on this hour. we are on the countdown, about 35 minutes from now. our special coverage beginning at 11:45 eastern time. [ loud party sounds ] hi, i'm ensure clear... clear, huh? i'm not juice or fancy water. i've got nine grams of protein.

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we're still waiting to hear if lance armstrong apologizes to his accusers in a huge interview he did with oprah winfrey.

one thing isfinally admitting he's used performance-enhancing drugs, and it nothing short of remarkable. >> we're stiick and tired of the allegations. it's untrue. i said it for seven years. i said it longer for seven years. i've never doped. i'll do it again. how can it have taken place when i have never taken performance-enhancing drugs. >> back to 1995, one of your former teammates was riding with you, he has told espn on the record and on camera that back in '95 when the team was struggling, you announced to the team you were going to begin doping and you would encourage other team banks to do the same what do you make of that? >> complete nonsense. i can't be clearer than i've

never taken drugs. incidents like that could never happen. >> why would i enter into a sport, dope up and risk my life again. i would never do that. no way. my case, i came out of a life-threatening disease. i was on my death bed. you think i would go to a doctor, give me everything, i want to go fast. no way? >> way, you did you', you're te people that now. there are people he has wronged over the years, not just little, a lot. former friends who were cast out as vindictive and liars as they challenged him on doping. here are a few of those. frankie andreu and tyler hamilton, former teammates, his former personal assistant, emma

o'reilly, and british journalist david walsh. not everyone who has come up against lance armstrong is so ready to forgive and forget. dallas attorney jeff tillison is waiting patiently to hear what armstrong has to say. his clients paid armstrong millions and millions of dollars for his wins there were bonuses for racking up the yellow jerseys, now i can only assume you want your money back. my first question is this, are you about to file paperwork to sue lance armstrong because now it looks like he's going to admit he lied? he lied in depositions that you were part of? he lied in a cast that cost you millions? >> yes, my client has made demand for the return of the prize money they paid him. absent getting a satisfactory response to that demand, they'll have no choice but to pursue legal action against mr. armstrong for the return of that

money. >> that is not new. i know you made that request, very politely, i may add, but you have not asserted it in a civil court of law. are you going to do that? >> we're waiting to see like everyone else exactly what mr. armstrong says in his interview with oprah winfrey. i can assure you of my client's resolve, if this matter is not resolved, they will sue mr. armstrong. and that demand has been communicated to mr. armstrong's camp very clearly and forcefully. >> which brings me to the critical nature of the wording. i want to know from a legal standpoint exactly what you are listening for that perhaps the layperson may not identify as critical to your mission. the words that lance armstrong uses that could expose him to the liability you're suggesting. >> it's not just admitting that he doped, but that he doped in connection with the tour de france races, that he's been doping for a long period during

his career, and hopefully an acknowledgment that he was untruthful in our legal proceeding. i think we all know, as your viewers do, that the answers to those questions are yes. and that he was untruthful. but we'd like to see what he says to ms. winfrey to finalize our legal strategy. >> and in the way he words it, because ms. winfrey has couched significantly what mr. armstrong said to her, and brilliantly so, because we all need to see this interview to know what we're up against here, but he has said to the livestrong campaign that he regrets what they have had to endure since all of this transpired. regret is not i am sorry for. there's a big difference between saying you regret and a big difference between saying i'm sorry and i did this. so, what wording do you need to hear that gets you to the courthouse to file your case? >> well, i think no matter what he says tomorrow night, based on the evidence we have, we have a compelling legal case for the return of the money we paid him. but we're specifically looking

to see which of the doping allegations that we raised and developed in our case he's going to acknowledge as true. that said, you played a clip from my deposition where he said unequivocally under oath i never doped. i think tomorrow night he will actually confirm that that was an untrue statement given under oath. >> this is getting into the weeds a little, but the effect is no less critical. i know the statue of limitations on perjury is three years in texas. did you ever take a deposition over a video conference or a telephone call from another state which could possibly expose lance armstrong to perjury charges in another state that perhaps has seven years statute of limitations or more? >> it's possible. depositions were taken in california in our case. we deposed emma riley, the masseuse, that was taken overseas, depositions of mr. greg lemond were taken in minnesota. >> but i'm curious to see if

lance armstrong may have lied in other state over the transmission wires which could expose him to federal issues and could also expose him to the statute of limitations that could be longer in another state? >> i'll leave that to the appropriate authorities. he was deposed in austin, texas, when i took his deposition. for our purposes and our civil case we're focused on texas and texas law. >> i will tap you for your legal mind, not necessarily for your case. i listed out a whole lot of people who have been wronged by lance armstrong. many of his former cycling mates, teammates, people who worked for him whose careers were ostensibly destroyed. i'm curious if you think those people -- i just got a few of them listed up on the screen right now, have a strong libel case, a defamation case against lance armstrong because they suffered financially because of what he said. >> i think that's certainly a possibility. the list is much longer than you

gave. betsy andrew is someone who comes to mind who was vilified by the armstrong camp and put through grief for testimony she gave that turns out now to be entirely truthful. the same with greg lemond and others. depending on what he said about them publically and some of the things he said in my lawsuit, those individuals may have valid complains. we were one of the biggest targets of mr. armstrong's venom and were called all sorts of names and liars throughout the course of our case. >> and i should let our viewers know, in those bonus payments that your -- who you represent is the insurance company that paid out those bonuses for the yellow jersey wins, you did not sue him. he sued you. he sued you to get the money. it's even more -- just strident in his behavior. >> we questioned in light of his sixth win, we questioned whether or not some of the allegations being thrown about him were true or not.

and instead of getting answers we got a lawsuit against us. as it turns out, the information we gathered in connection with that investigation which was mostly put together by david walsh, the british journalist, all turned out to be true and formed the bull work of the usada recent decision that was listed last fall. we feel bad about it. >> i hope that you will come back on this program, either friday or monday and talk about your reaction to what he says, and whether that means you're on your way to the courthouse with some very expensive paperwork for him. >> i look forward to it. thank you. >> jeffrey tilloson joining us from dallas, texas. i mentioned the livestrong moment where he said he regretted what the folks have gone through. i want to read some more about what that foundation released today. we expect lance to be completely truthful and forthcoming in his interview and with all of us in

the cancer community. so clearly they're still waiting for word as well. for more on lance armstrong's story, don't miss or "the world according to lance special" it's airing this saturday night at 10:00 eastern. and then treats day after day... block the acid with prilosec otc and don't get heartburn in the first place! [ male announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. ♪ [ male announcer ] don't just reject convention. drown it out. introducing the all-new 2013 lexus ls f sport. an entirely new pursuit. introducing the all-new 2013 lexus ls f sport. excuse me, sir i'm gonna have to ask you to power down your little word game. i think your friends will understand.

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150,000 students scrambling for alternate ways to and from school today as new york city school bus drivers walk off the job and on to the picket line.

the issue for them -- the drivers union, they say it's job security. the city put its contracts with private companies up for bid in a move to cut costs. the union says some drivers could suddenly lose their jobs when the contracts therefo therefore expire this june. the house approves a big package of aid for superstorm victims. the vote is 251-180. 180 voted against it. the bill directs more than $50 billion to storm-averaged states in the northeast. that package heads to the senate after the president's inauguration. alexis, wineman grew up knowing she was not like any other kids, but it wasn't until she turned 11 that she really

found out why. here's dr. sanjay gupta with the story of a girl who did not let her disorder get in the way of her dreams. >> reporter: miss montana surrounded by more than 50 other bo beauty queens on stage. for most of her life, alexis, wineman spent her time alone. >> i was very quiet. i couldn't say anything right. i was picked on for the way i spoke. i didn't have any friends. >> reporter: her parents knew there wassing ing ssomething w their small town didn't have the resources to figure out what it was. at the age of 11, a doctor finely put the name to wineman's condition, pervasive development disorder, a mile form of autism. typically children with autism are intelligent but very quiet. typically they don't end up becoming beauty queens either.

but wineman said one day she simply decided not to let her condition define her. >> i wanted to accept myself and my autism and i realized that my autism doesn't define me. >> reporter: she entered the miss montana pageant as a way to prove to herself she could do anything she put her mind to. >> i fell in love with the program. good thing, too, because i won. i wasn't expecting to win. >> reporter: that win put her on the national stage in las vegas. >> miss montana alexis wineman. >> reporter: wineman made it as far as the top 15 and won the america's choice award for garnering the most online votes. she said the whole experience has been an amazing ride. >> it's been a challenge but i've enjoyed it immensely. there are times when i feel a bit overwhelmed, but those are going to happen in life any way, whether you're going to be miss america or not. so i'm willing to take all of

that on. >> reporter: dr. sanjay gupta, cnn, reporting.

we are less than a half hour away from president obama's announcement of the steps he plans to take and the measures that he'll support to try to make america safer while at the

same time upholding the second amendment of the u.s. constitution. my colleague wolf blitzer joins me now to set the stage. wo wolf, it appears for right now the public polls show that the public is on the president's side. we have brand new numbers we want to release now. a cnn/orc poll taken january 14th to 15th. there you have it. 55% of those asked favor stricter gun control laws. what does the president have in mind? you have to imagine that they know these numbers are out there. >> the president thinks that this is the moment to really take dramatic comprehensive efforts to dole wieal with gunse united states. he has a whole bunch of initiatives he's about to unveil in dealing with this problem across the board. it will be a bold plan in terms of what the president wants to do, the military-type assault weapons, the high-ammunition

clips, the number of rounds that can be in clips, dealing with mental health. that will be another part of what the president has in mind. so this is going to be a pretty ambitious plan. even though our new poll numbers show that the american public supports stricter gun control, this is going to be a tough ride. dealing with the assault weapons-type ban, for example, it's by no means a done deal. you not only need the senate, you need the house of republi n representatives, you need republicans, democrats and then you have the national rifle association, its affiliate groups, supporting groups that will be fiercely opposed to what the president is now going to be putting forward. this is going to be a tough fight. >> and that national rifle association, as you just brought up, is about 4.25 members, give or take the approximate 250,000 that the nra says has joined the organization in the last 6 to 8 weeks. i want to ask you about that.

the nra, while accepting the invitation to the white house to discuss with joe biden the initiati initiatives, they also came out with an explosive new ad. albeit this ad is somewhat limited in its release. it is airing on the sportsman network and on the web. it's darn strident. let's have a look at it. >> are the president's kids more important than yours? why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their school? >> all right. so, wolf, that is tough language. a lot of people would say this means business. but the truth of the matter is those millions of members i just outlined, they are also moderate as well. they run the gamut from moderate to extremely conservative. does the president think that the nra might be losing some of its steam in the wake of so many

tragedies? >> their membership has gone up in the past month or so since the newtown, connecticut massacre. you and i were there, so we remember vividly what occurred and the immediate aftermath of those horrendous days that followed. he suspects this is the time to deal with background checks for all gun transfers, not just at gun stores but gun shows and private sales as well. he wants to make sure there are stricter controls. this ad, when you start bringing in a president -- any president's children into a political advertisement like this, it's pretty outrageous. i speak as someone who covered a lot of presidents including their kids. these are children of a president, of a sitting president of the united states and i think it's fair to say i've always felt you keep the kids off of the politics. let the kids grow up. you don't bring them involved. get them involved in these debates. it's pretty outrageous. >> i think i can speak for all

of us. we don't have the same security issues for our children that the president of the united states has for his family. i don't care what party you're from. they have always had protection and they remain protected even after they leave office. wolf, looking forward to seeing you shortly. you will be here for our special coverage of the president's gun violence announcement. i'll let you go and let you continue to prepare for that. and we, as we look at the podium and await the arrival of the key players, there you have it, 11:45, obama's gun proposals live from washington.

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in literally just minutes from now, we are also getting a first look at a "time" magazine special report that is coming out today. it's offering exclusive details from inside the white house that led to this very day and these very proposals. the cobbling together of a coalition built to reset the gun debate. there you have it, splashed on the cover, mayor michael bloomberg of new york, vice president joe biden and former congresswoman gabby giffords. the trio are "the gunfighters." time's executive editor joins us now. as you say the around your editorial table and make this decision, do you have the sense

this is a seminal moment in the history of the united states and how it deals with the second amendment or is this a fleeting era that is bouncing off the emotions of some very, very sad news stories of late? >> well, certainly we've all lived through a number of mass shootings. the shooting in newtown does feel like it has moved the national mood a bit on this issue. certainly the muscle that the obama administration is putting behind it and this new coalition, a group of powerful faces, mayor bloomberg, vice president biden, gabby giffords, they want to capitalize on this moment in a way we haven't seen happen in a few years. c >> can we are have some new polls that i mentioned with wolf blitzer? it says 55% of those asked now favor stricter gun control laws. you ad that to a man like

justice scalia, who, by all means, people say, is the most -- you know, solid protector of the second amendment. yet in his opinion in 2008 on the heller case he wrote like most rights, the rights secured by the second amendment is not limited. we also recognize another important limitation on the right to keep and carry arms, precedent says the sorts of weapon prospected were those in common use at the time. we think that limitation is fairly supported by the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons. people freaked out when they heard that. and when he repeated it on television. and now we have newtown and aurora and the list goes on. which is why i asked that original question. you have scalia saying that. the president crying in front of the country after what happened in newtown. then you have this rapid response -- this was expected in a couple of weeks.

here we are in almost a week. >> i mean, i think it goes to show that the president in his second term is really willing to lead on these issues. it's less -- in a way less relevant to him whether a particular legislation will pass in congress. we know this republican congress, it will be very difficult for him to pass any legislation on gun control. but he wants to be in front of the american people. he wants his best people on it saying can we be reasonable about guns? can we, as you said, can we preserve this right but also use commonsense to regulate it so that we're not looking at that multiple newtowns? >> reasonable. that's one of my favorite words in the law. reasonable because everyone has a different interpretation. radika jones, thank you for your time. look forward to reading through your special edition of "time." >> thank you. >> speaking of special, we have our own special coverage, it's

getting underway in a moment. the president's gun proposals. it starts after this break. so now i can be in the scene. advair is clinically proven to help significantly improve lung function. unlike most copd medications, advair contains both an anti-inflammatory and a long-acting bronchodilator working together to help improve your lung function all day. advair won't replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than twice a day. people with copd taking advair may have a higher chance of pneumonia. advair may increase your risk of osteoporosis and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking advair. if you're still having difficulty breathing, ask your doctor if including advair could help improve your lung function. get your first full prescription free and save on refills at advaircopd.com.

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hello, everyone, i'm wolf blitzer in washington. exactly one month after president obama vowed to use whatever power his office holds to prevent more tragedies like the one in newtown, connecticut,

he's about to tell us what that means. in a little less than ten minutes, the president will unveil a series of proposals that go beyond what we typically think of his gun control. cnn's special live coverage starts right now. we have our reporters and our analysts standing by. our chief white house correspondent, jessica yellin is at the white house. our senior congressional correspondent, dana bash is up on capitol hill. here with me are chief political analyst gloria borger and john king. also with us, joe johns, dan glickman a senior fellow at the bipartis bipartisan center. jessica, let's start with you. what do we know? what is the president about to tell us? >> hi, wolf. we just got notification the president will be out momentarily. i understand the president will be accompanied. first the vice president will speak on the stage, the

president. we'll be looking to see if the president is taking actions today to move forward on some of those efforts he can do unilaterally to effect gun safety. executive actions. the president will be flanked by children who wrote him after the newtown shootings about gun violence. among them three kids whose letters, they sent to us, to show us ages 10 through 11, they asked him to stop some of the gun violence. clearly using the children of the nation in their effort to lobby for gun safety. we've gone through some of those measures that the president has emphasized that we know will come out today. chief among them, tightening the current laws for back ground checks and stepping up regulations to universalize background checks, also expanding the limits on magazines, so you cannot buy magazines with more than ten bullets. one thing we heard is

downplaying a push for the assault weapons ban. we expect the president will call for it, but not a lot to of emphases on pushing that one forward. in this audience, we're hear with members of the cabinet and a number of families of victims will be here. but also a number of activist groups, member of moveon.org is behind me. they're organizing 200 actions around the country on thursday to help mobilize efforts to support the president's attempts to improve the gun safety laws in this nation. wolf? >> stand by, jessica. dana bash is up on capitol hill. dana, i expected this legislation that the president will send to congress, there could be a huge, huge battle. there's no guarantee he will succeed. >> no guarantee at all. i think that the odds are pretty low on him getting -- at this point him getting any of this through. not unlikely, but low. it's interesting because so much of what we've seen with the battles over the fiscal cliff and everything have been along party lines.

that's not the case here. the big thing we're watching are the president's fellow democrats in the senate. they're the ones, many of them that he will have to convince to get things through. a number of them are up for reelection next year, and they are from red states, where gun owners and gun rights are very strong. so they're going to be very reluctant to support anything. i'm hearing from democratic leadership sources, as jessica was eluding to, the most likely piece of legislation to get through is something relating to background checks. that's the most likely. it's, in the words of one source, probably the least offensive to gun rights owners. probably the best way to appeal to many gun rights advocates who say you do need to focus on mental health, you do need to focus on criminals, making sure they don't get guns. even that is going to be difficult and require a lot of communication by the white house with fellow democrats, particularly in the senate. never mind the house. they won't touch anything unless the senate does it first, the

democratic-run senate. >> getting ready for another fight on capitol hill. the national rifle association, the gun lobbyists have put out an ad a controversial ad just a while ago. >> are the president's kids more important than yours? why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their school? >> the white house press secretary, jay carney issued this statement, most americans agree a president's children should not be used as pawns in a political fight, but to go so far as making the safety of the president's children the subject of an attack is repugnant and cowardly. jessica, this is -- >> it's unseemly. it's unseemly. it's in your face. it's kind of a classic move by

the nra, playing this game, being a small buy on a cable network and knowing rallying their base. their own anti-regulation base. because they know what's happening now. you look at the polls. the numbers are going up for some kind of gun control. what they want to do is make sure that their intense supporters stay with them. and multiply. >> here come the kids. these are children who wrote letters to the president urging him to deal with the issue of guns. john king is here. the president will have them as a background. biden will speak. then the president will speak. then the president will sign a whole bunch of executive orders. stuff he can do. >> stricter laws, studies on gun safety. the children, wolf, and people outside washington are critical. as you hear everybody here saying including the democratic leader of the senate. the senate majority leader says we should be, quote, very

cautious when it comes to new gun control. harry reid is part of the president's problem here. there's a change under way in the democratic party. question is how big? after 2000 when al gore lost, they blamed losing tennessee, west virginia and other places on his support of gun control. now, some of that was exaggerated. that's what they thought. you saw democrats being timid on the gun issue after that. look at the 2016 lineup. vice president joe biden, governor andrew cuomo, governor o'malley. three people looking at the 2016 race on the democratic seed in the forefront on gun control. we'll see how big of a shift it. >> the vice president will speak first. >> please, please be seated. thank you. before i begin today, let me say to the families of the innocents who were murdered 33 days ago, our heart, our heart goes out to you. and you show incredible courage, incredible courage being here, and the president and i are going to do everything in our

power to honor the memory of your children and your wives with the work we take ur here today. it's been 33 days since the nation's heart was broken by the horrific, senseless violence that took place at sandy hook elementary school. 20, 20 beautiful first graders gunned down in a place that's supposed to be their second sanctuary. six, six members of the staff killed. trying to save those children. it's literally been hard for the nation to comprehend, hard for the nation to fathom. i know for the families who are here, time is not measured in days, but it's measured in minutes, in seconds. since you received that news. another minute without your daughter. another minute without your son. another minute without your

wife, another minute without your mom. i want to personally thank chris and lynn mcdonnell who lost a beautiful daughter, grace, and the other parents who i had a chance to speak to, for their suggestions and for, again, just for their courage of all of you to be here today. i admire, i admire the grace and the resolve that you're all showing. and i must say, i've been deeply affected by your faith as well. the president and i are going to do everything to try to match the resolve you've demonstrated. no one can know for certain if this senseless act could have been prevented, but we all know we have a moral obligation. a moral obligation to do everything in our power to diminish the prospect that something like this could happen again. as the president knows, i've worked in this field a long time

in the united states senate. having chaired a committee that had jurisdiction over these issues of guns and crime. and having drafted the first gun violence legislation, the last gun violence legislation, i should say. and i have no illusions about what we're up against, what we're up against, or how hard the task is in front of us, but i also have never seen the nation's conscience so shaken by what happened at sandy hook. the world has changed. it's demanding action. it's in this context the president asked me to put together along with cabinet members a set of recommendations about how we should proceed to meet that moral obligation we have. and toward that end, cabinet members and i sat down with 229 groups, not just individuals, representing groups. 229 groups from law enforcement agencies to public health officials, to gun officials, to

gun advocacy groups, to sportsmen and hunters and religious leaders. and i've spoken with members of congress on both sides of the aisle. had extensive conversation with mayors and governors and county officials. and the recommendations we provided to the president on monday call for executive actions he could sign. legislation he could call for. and long-term research that should be undertaken. they're based on the emerging consensus we heard from all the groups with whom we spoke including some of you who are victims of this god awful occurrence. ways to keep guns out of the wrong hands as well as ways to take comprehensive action to prevent violence in the first place. we should do as much as we can as quickly as we can. we cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good. some of what you'll hear from the president will happen immediately. some will take some time, but we have begun. and we are starting here today. we're resolved to continue this fight. during the meetings that we

held, we met with a young man who's here today. i think collin goddard is here. where are you, collin? collin was one of the survivors of the virginia tech massacre. he was in the classroom. he calls himself one of the lucky seven. and he'll tell you, he was shot four times on that day, and he has three bullets that are still inside him. and when i ask collin about what he thought we should be doing, he said that he said, i'm not here because of what happened to me, i'm here because of what happened to me keeps happening to other people. and we have to do something about it. collin, we will. collin, i promise you, we will. this is our intention. we must do what we can now, and there's no person who is more committed to acting on this moral obligation we have than the president of the united states of america.

ladies and gentlemen, president barack obama. >> thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you so much. thank you, everybody. please. please have a seat. good afternoon, everybody. let me begin by thanking our vice president joe biden for your dedication, joe, to this issue, for bringing so many different voices to the table. because while reducing gun violence is a complicated challenge, protecting our children from harm shouldn't be a divisive one. over the month since the tragedy in newtown, we've heard from so many and obviously none have affected us more than the families of those gorgeous children and their teachers and guardians who were lost.

and so we're grateful to all of you for taking the time to be here and recognizing that we honor their memories in part by doing everything we can to prevent this from happening again. we also heard from some unexpected people, in particular, i started getting a lot of letters from kids. four of them are here today. grant fritz, julia stokes, hinna zehaw, and teja good. they're pretty representative of some of the messages i got. these are some pretty smart letters from some pretty smart young people. hinna, a third grader, you can go ahead and wave. that's you. hinna wrote, "i feel terrible for the parents whost